Armenian troops breach ceasefire with Azerbaijan
Over the past 24 hours, the Armenian armed forces 42 times violated the ceasefire on various parts of the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry reported on December 19.
On that day, Armenian armed forces located in the villages of Aygepar and Aygedzor of Armenia’s Berd district, opened fire at the positions of Azerbaijani armed forces in the villages of Alibayli and Munjuglu in the Tovuz district.
Armenian armed forces located in the village of Berkaber of Armenia’s Ijavan district, opened fire at the positions of Azerbaijani armed forces in the village of Gizilhajili in the Gazakh district.
Armenian armed forces opened fire at the Azerbaijani positions located near the villages of Yusifjanli, Shikhlar, Sarijali, Marzili, Shuraabad, Novruzlu of the Aghdam district, Kuropatkino of the Khojavand district, Horadiz, Garakhanbayli, Ashagi Seyidahmadli of the Fizuli district and Mehdili of the Jabrayil district.
The Azerbaijani armed forces were fired at from the nameless heights in the districts of Fuzuli, Goranboy and Khojavand.
The enemy was silenced with return fire.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.
Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. However, the negotiations have been largely fruitless so far despite the efforts of the co-chair countries for over 20 years.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its pullout from the neighboring country's territories.